Note that session_start( ) calls open then read and the class returns true for open and the value of session or empty for read.
Well, then there is no catch for errors, this is, session_start() must return false on failure, but that is not the case for the class implementation on method open, no matter if you return true or false or whatever from open, it is ignored by session_start() function and proceeds to read method
A bug?, if open returns false, session_start() should stop the next step (read) and return itself false
if(session_start()) ...code
else exit( );
So forget about session_start() return value, you need to implement an error catch routine and exit() in case of failure on open method